Midnight's Kitten
by Mage-Alia
Summary: Crossover... "Never! Never before has Midnight given her gift to anyone other than a woman!" Harry is thrown back into the world of heros when he is killed one night, long after the defeat of Voldemort. (heh, I know, corny!) HPDM.
1. Cry of the Cat

(A/N: Alright this story may seem a little corny, after all, it was cooked up off the top of my head as a kind of random brain fart, but I gave it a little thought and now I've added another crossover story to my rather pitiful collection. (Well, now that I think of them some really aren't that bad…..) So with out further ado, I give you my Harry Potter/ Cat woman crossover… fusion… slashthingie…

Disclaimer: I don't claim to own anything in this story or outside it for that matter, Both Harry Potter and Cat Woman belong to their respective creators.

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**Midnight's kitten**

**Prelude: Cry of the cat.**

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_If there had been an obituary for the night I died, it would have told of the unremarkable life of a forgotten, unremarkable man….. _

_But there was no obituary._

_Because the night that I died was also the night that I truly began to live.…._

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"EVANS!"

**CRASH**

The blonde sales assistant of Flourish and Blots bookstore known as James Evans winced as the stack of books he'd been holding when the manger of the store had shrieked at him fell to the floor at his feat. The strict witch rounded a corner and took in the sight, all the while going red in the face.

"LOOK WHAT YOU'VE GONE AND DONE NOW!" she thundered at James who quickly scrambled to pick them all up. "JAMES EVANS YOU WILL NOT LEAVE THIS STORE UNTIL EVERY ONE OF THESE BOOKS IS ON THE RIGHT SHELF! EVERY SINGLE ONE!" She glared down at him as James nodded meekly on the floor and quickly began to work once she'd left his general area. James was used to this kind of treatment. To anyone else it would seem barbaric, but to James… he'd lived with it for most of his life. You see James wasn't his real name. The persona of James Evans was a non-existent mask that hid one Harry James Potter from the rest of the world.

Harry had been long since forgotten by the world that had once idolized him as their golden boy. OH he had defeated Voldemort and the age of seventeen, yes, no one would forget that, but Harry himself had just passed into history and… forgotten. It hadn't helped him though; nothing could help him from the wounds inflicted by that war. Nearly everyone he'd loved, nearly everyone who had given a damn about him had died at the hands of his own nemesis and not just in the final battle. Sirius, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Ginny Weasley, Snape and even Dumbledore… even if he'd ended up hating the old man for what he'd done to him. They'd all died for him and that had hurt him more than any curse could have. He still carried the scars on his wrists and on his heart. Depression had set in long ago, making him an empty shell.

But the biggest blow to him so far had been the actions of his friends. During the war the minister, Cornelius Fudge had died and Arthur Weasley had taken his place, with him his family had risen in social status and would no longer acknowledge him. Ron and Hermione had thrown him away like a used puppet, broken by its owner and tossed in to the trash like the rest of the rubbish. That had been when he'd tried to kill himself. Just one more point toward why he should end it, but even then he'd failed himself. He couldn't go through with it, even on his darkest days, all he could do was scratch his wrists with a blade, but never make the cut. So now, he merely existed. Working to keep his nightmares at bay and simply to forget his torment when he feared to sleep.

The store had been closed for the night hours ago when James finally finished the job he'd been given by the manger. Nearby, a grandfather clock that had been there since the store had been built struck eleven and James felt exhaustion creeping into his mind. Rubbing his eyes and yawning he left his seat on the floor of one of the rows and dragged himself toward the door, locking it behind him as he began to walk toward the Leaky Caldron. His thoughts had been drifting sluggishly when the sound of someone stepping out on to the cobblestones sounded behind him, to tired to care James continued onward toward his destination, then, out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash. He turned around to face the group of orange robed men behind him but could do nothing as a voice called out a spell and the next thing he knew he was hit by the never ending pain of a curse he hadn't felt since the war.

He screamed.

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The shadowy alcove that branched off Knockturn Alley was a known dumping ground for people who'd been killed. When the Auror's occasionally dared to check this place they'd find bodies nearly every time, from children to old men, the damp walls of this little alley had seen every atrocity possible. But that night, when it's newest and only resident at the time had been thrown in, it saw something that only ever happened once in a lifetime. Still in his guise of James Evans Harry Potter stared up at the clouds of the sky with a blank expression. His eyes open and eternally locked on a face only he could see, his eyes, still green even through his glamour, where dull and lifeless as he continued to stare up at the sky.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the world his death had signaled something. Cats from all over London suddenly began to gather, even to animals in the stores along Diagon Alley broke loose of their cages. They sat in every available space they could find. Looking down from walls and rooftops to watch as a gray cat, with dark gray, nearly black tiger stripes approached his body. Ignoring the blood that was pooling sluggishly around him from open wounds as his body cooled the lordly cat stepped up onto his chest and looked into his face. Opening her mouth she leaned close, looking into his eyes as she yowled. It was a call taken up by the cats around her as Harry jerked. His hair and skin turning back to normal as his magic wore off. The cat closed her mouth and tipped her head to one side as she watched his eyes. Nothing happened.

**YOOOOWWWWWLLLLLLLLLL!!!**

The cat repeated her call, but this time it was louder. It reverberated along the walls of the alley, saturating the young man under her with power as his eye twitched and dilated. His pupils narrowing to the slit ones of a cat as his heart restarted with a violent jolt. Satisfied with her work and Harry slowly began to return to consciousness the Egyptian Mau known as Midnight turned around and lightly jumped off the now healed body to the ground. Sitting at the end of the alley she waited for her kitten to sit up and see her before she followed the lead of her fellow felines and vanished in the blink of an eye.

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(A/N: So what do you think so far? Any good? Should I continue the story or do you think it's a dud? If there's something wrong with it don't hesitate to tell me, I'm always looking for ways to improve my writing.)

Don't forget to review!

Cya


	2. Beginning to live

Disclaimer: I don't claim to own anything in this story or outside it for that matter, Both Harry Potter and Cat Woman belong to their respective creators.

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**Midnight's kitten**

**Chapter 1: Beginning to live.**

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Everything was blurred as Harry opened his eyes. For a moment he could barely see through the fog in his own mind, then his vision cleared and the view before him came into crystal focus… from on top of his wardrobe. Startled as this new fact seeped into his brain he jumped violently and as a result, sent himself to the floor. He winced as the ground rushed up to meet him and closed his eyes, waiting for the impact, but it never came. He cracked open an eyelid and looked down to see his fingers splayed on the floor beneath him, having managed to land on his fingers and toes.

"Oh shit…" Harry breathed out in a rush as he stood upright and looked around his brightly lit apartment. The sun was already high above London in a clear periwinkle blue sky, not a cloud was in sight for miles and everyone seemed to be enjoying it. Harry stepped into the warm sunlight and smiled as it washed over him before he realized what he was doing and froze. His mind went blank as he searched his heart and somehow found nothing. He conjured up a picture of Sirius in his mind and felt…

Nothing.

He could feel nothing, no anger, and no sadness… Rapidly he brought to mind everyone who he'd formerly mourned for so long and found that he could no longer really miss them. Instead a sort of newfound peace had settled over his once tortured soul. Come to think about it, he didn't remember having a nightmare last night either. Mind you, his memory of the night before was a complete loss. He couldn't remember anything past closing time in Flourish and Blots, speaking of which…

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"BLOODY HELL! I'M LATE!" The tenant in the apartment next door who had just walked past nearly jumped out of her skin as her usually silent neighbor charged out of his apartment, a set of keys dangling from his mouth as he pulled on a jacket over his jeans and shirt while he hopped on the spot, tying his laces and nearly falling down the stairs due to his rushed efforts. He only just managed to keep his balance.

Quickly ducking out of sight he put on his usual glamour before he entered the Leaky Caldron and bolted up Diagon Alley to the bookstore. He wasn't even out of breath when he darted inside the establishment as quickly as possible only to come up face to face with the manger. He grimaced slightly, noticing her resemblance to the toad Umbridge he'd had for DADA in fifth year as he gave her a slightly pained, hopeful smile. His expression faded though when the witch launched herself into a tirade worthy of Voldemort himself.

"MR EVANS! I HOPE YOUR SUDDEN LAZYNESS WILL NOT BECOME A PERMANENT THING BECAUSE I WILL NOT TOLERATE YOU SITTING AROUND AND BEING PAID TO DO NOTHING!" Harry looked up at her as she continued to tower over him yelling when a sudden flood of indignation flowed through him. With no idea what he was doing or why he was doing it he suddenly found himself standing at full height, a confidence he hadn't felt in a long time suddenly radiating off every inch of him as an arrogant expression slid across his face.

"Well pardon me." He all but purred in a low and deadly tone that put his boss off kilter. "I do believe that my recent behavior has been the result of a realization…" He pinned her with a hypnotic stare. "That you, are a slave driving, unsatisfied bitch who takes out her frustrations on those you deem beneath you simply because if you didn't you'd feel totally out of your depth, so to say… yes, very much like the late Professor Severus Snape if I'm not mistaken." His whole little speech had been delivered in a cool tone that simply screamed, 'I'm better than you'. It was a great contradiction of his normal attitude. The witch just stared at him dumbstruck as she took in everything _James_ had just said. Her reaction came on slowly. First she began to shake under the stares of the other employees, then a lovely shade of purple began to color her face from the neck up. She tensed up and let fly with the words she'd been building up to.

"YOU'RE FIRED!" Harry raised an eyebrow and bowed mockingly to the witch before he swept out the door and into Diagon Alley once more. He stopped in the yard behind the Leaky Caldron and let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and released his illusion before he realized what had just occurred. At first he panicked but then it struck him, he still had the Potter vault, and he'd only ever taken the job in the first place to keep himself occupied so he didn't have to think. Breathing a sigh of relief and even daring to laugh quietly he stepped into the Leaky Caldron as Harry Potter for the first time in what felt like years. Come to think of it… it had been years.

"Good morning, Harry." The messy haired young man jumped in surprise as he heard the old innkeeper Tom's voice from the bar. Harry looked over and found the other wizard giving him a toothy grin with the few teeth he had left. Harry couldn't help the shy smile the sprung up in response.

"Lo' Tom." He said with a wave, crossing to the bar. Tom nodded to him.

"You should come by here more often Harry." He said, picking up another wet glass and drying it off absently. There weren't to many wizards and witches around the bar today and everything was relatively quiet, the main morning rush having ended while Harry had been outside. "You haven't been here in years and we all missed you." Harry gave him a quizzical look.

"We?" Tom grinned again and put down the glass to wave his hand around in a slightly dismissive gesture.

"Fortescue, old Grizelda from the menagerie and myself. None of us ever forgot you helping us out, you where the best worker we've had since, forever." Harry was stunned to realize that he'd forgotten all about that time he'd spent in Diagon Alley after sixth year. That had been when he'd picked up his disguising ability. He'd been hiding from the order after an incredibly stressful year and Tom and some of the others had help him get back on his feet that time too and he'd managed to forget all about it. Needless to say they'd never actually told anyone about his stint as a normal person, but it had helped greatly. At last, Harry smiled at Tom.

"I guess I'll just have to come by more often then." He said, his unusually good spirits retuning. "Will you say hello to Fortescue and Grizelda for me, please?" Tom laughed and nodded bidding him goodbye Harry took the exit to muggle London and stopped in the street wondering what he'd do now. He looked around at the muggles in the street and absently began to wonder about the change he seemed to have gone through as he wondered down the street, his gaze flicking to the clear blue sky every now and then. He'd wondered further from the wizarding part of London when he looked down and realized what he should do.

No time like the present to go shopping.

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Weary from the energetic efforts of the saleswomen who had pounced on him the moment he'd entered the store Harry dragged himself back to his apartment with all his new clothes shrunk in his pockets. He'd gone all out, deciding that if he was going to change, he might as well do it completely. Sprawled on his couch he looked around absently before a cat's meow broke through his pleasant daze. Curious he looked at the fire escape that ran outside his window and saw a gray striped cat sitting outside. He winced slightly as a memory shot through his head.

**Flashback**

The cat stood at the end of the alley staring back at him with liquid dark eyes that seemed to hold an ancient wisdom in their depths. The cat disappeared as he struggled upright and found noises from all around him blaring to his suddenly enhanced ears…

**End Flashback**

"Hello." He murmured as he got up from the couch and went to the open window. "I remember you…" He reached out a hand and the cat didn't move, allowing him to pet him with long flowing strokes. It meowed when he picked it up and took it into the apartment, resuming his seat on the couch he continued to stroke the bundle of fur in his lap.

"You know what happened to me, don't you." It wasn't a question. Midnight just looked up at him and meowed again, a deep rumble of a purr built up from its chest as she rubbed her face against the hand that had stopped moving. "I… I can't remember anything past leaving the store last night." He stared out the nearest window and saw the sky turn blood red as the sun sank below the horizon. But as the light faded he found he could still see perfectly in the minimal light from the moon that flooded in like a silvery waterfall to the hardwood floor. It was only then that he realized that he was missing his glasses. Quickly feeling around his eyes confirmed that he'd been without them all day. Shaking off his surprise he shifted the cat to a cushion beside him and rushed to the bathroom to take a good look at his reflection. His pupils had changed. They where now slit like a cats, they still glowed their usual unearthly emerald green, but they'd changed so that they where slightly pulled up at the corners, giving him and appearance not unlike that of someone from Asia.

"By Merlin." He breathed under his breath as he touched his face and looked out the door to where the cat had climbed to the table behind the couch and was looking at him with an almost calculating look. Harry shivered and wrapped his arms around himself before he turned off the light and left the bathroom, making his way to his bedroom. Striping down to his boxers and a shirt he climbed into bed, wanting only to sleep after such a confusing day, but something wasn't letting him. He got up again and slunk around the apartment restlessly before he found himself in front of the wardrobe he'd woken on this morning. He looked up at it and then moved back to the door his eyes moving across where the cat had been. It was gone, no trace of it left to even indicate that the feline had even been there. Giving the apartment one last look he turned out the light and climbed from a chair to the top of the wardrobe and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

When his eyes snapped open the next morning Harry was much more prepared for the fall. He barely flinched as he landed on all fours once more.

"I really gotta find out why I keep doing that." He muttered under his breath as he got to his feet and went to get dressed. Pulling on a pair of jeans, a tight gray shirt and a pair of boots he wandered into the kitchen for breakfast and had just finished cleaning up when he heard the unmistakable call of a cat. Putting down the last dish on the sink, he looked out into the lounge room and immediately noticed the cat sitting by the door almost as if it was waiting to be let out. Looking down at it he shrugged and opened it, allowing the cat to slip outside, although before he could shut the door once more, the cat made its presence known loudly again. It was waiting by the stairs. Taking a moment to realize what was going on Harry's eyes widened before he ducked back into his apartment and grabbed his wand and his black woolen jacket before he locked the door behind him and headed after the cat.

It raced ahead of him, keeping mostly to the fences and alleyways when it didn't have to keep to the sidewalk. Harry ducked through the crowds of muggles on the street, his eyes on his target the whole time. He'd walked a long way from home when the gray cat stopped and jumped into his arms, leaving him standing on the sidewalk outside a large house that had been covered in various vines and flowers, giving it a very bright and homely appearance. Harry looked down at the cat, which returned his look with one that said 'what are you waiting for?' With a sigh he opened the gate in the low picket fence and went to the front door, shifting his companion a little to ring the bell. Muffled chimes rang through the thick wooden door to his ears and a moment later a tall thin woman, who Harry guessed to be in her late seventies, opened it. She wore a conservative dark gray shirt and blouse, with a purple and green scarf holding back her graying hair in a loose bun. Her eyes lit up as she saw the cat.

"Oh! Midnight! This is the longest you've been away yet." She spoke in a tone that was neither reprimanding nor complementary as she lifted her out of Harry's arms. "Oh and you've brought another friend…" She got her first good look at Harry and trailed off in surprise. Harry raised an eyebrow and looked at Midnight questioningly. The Egyptian Mau seemed to give the feline equivalent of a shrug as she dropped from the old woman's arms and strutted off into the house. By then the woman had recovered herself.

"Oh please do come in." She hastily ushered him inside and into a room off the side of the entrance hall that was filled with cats. Forcing him onto a floral print couch, she looked him in the eye before she began muttering franticly to herself.

"Never! Never before has Midnight given her gift to anyone other than a woman!" Her voice was high as she turned to Midnight who was lying imperiously on the top of a carpet covered scratching post off to one side, watching everything with a calculating gaze. "Why now of all times?" She asked, "Why him? You could have chosen anyone, but you chose him. I don't understand why you broke the tradition that's been carried on for centuries now." The cat, still purring, flicked her tail irritably and with a very put upon air got up from her place and jumped from her stand to the floor before stopping and waiting for them to follow. Harry moved first, still curious as to what was happening he followed into what appeared to be a library and took the stairs to join Midnight on the upper landing as she stopped beside a shelf and nosed a large book on the bottom shelf. He picked it up and looked at it blankly before he realized just what it was he was seeing.

"A photo album?" He asked no one in particular as he opened it and began to flick though the pages, not at all fussed with the old woman fretting silently beside him as he paged through the album, skimming over images as he went. Eventually he came to a picture and looked at it carefully before the woman gave a small cry and Harry barely had the time to spin around and catch her before Ophelia Powers fainted.

Meanwhile Midnight just looked on with the same smug look she always had as her kitten helped her owner back to the floral couch taking the photo album with him.

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(A/N: should I stop here?

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(No I think I'll continue)

"So you're saying that I died and somehow Midnight here brought me back from the dead." Harry leaned back in his seat on the floral print couch and absently petted the cat that sat beside him. Ophelia nodded.

"When you died, midnight gave you her powers, you must have needed her very much for her to give you her gift. She gave you absolute freedom and the confidence to use it when she brought you back." She looked down at the picture on the coffee table before her. It was of midnight surrounded by a liter of kittens. Ophelia had taken a while to remember it but when she had she'd begun making connections. The tomcat that midnight had mated with hadn't been another Egyptian Mau. So as a result the kittens had all varied in color, but one kitten had looked very much like the young man in front of her in some twisted, otherworldly way. It had had soft black fur that had stuck out in every direction even after it had been brushed, and its eyes, looking now into Harry's eyes she could see that the only difference was that these eyes where set in the face of a human instead of that of a cat, and they held the infinite wisdom of someone who had seen the horrors of humanity and lived, much like the look midnight had, but darker.

"So why me then?" he asked again, this time straight out.

"I don't know." She said tiredly. "Maybe its because you look like the kitten that died from her last liter. I just don't know." Harry looked over at the cat and frowned.

"Well I just don't get it." He said in a rather put off tone. "How could I have died? I think I'd remember someone trying to kill me…" He met midnight's eyes again and a flash of orange and a lot of pain surfaced in his memory. Shaking his head to clear it Harry stood up from his seat. "Look, thanks for the tea but I've got to go. There's things I need to do and no offence but sitting around like this isn't helping the fact that I am going to put my life back together." Without even waiting for a reply he left the house and walked out into the street, pointedly ignoring the Egyptian Mau watching him from the window. If he had looked back he would have sworn that the cat was laughing at him.

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Well that's it for this chapter. I'm sorry it's taken so long to update anything in my account but I've had difficulties with my parents. You can't live with them and you can't live without them and a friend of mine would say. They banned me from the computer no less than four consecutive times in a row, and now my internet is down so I can't upload this from home. #$&

Well anyway, now that I'm on school holidays there should be a few more updates.

Thanks to all who reviewed to the last chapter

Cya


	3. Animal Attraction

Disclaimer: I don't claim to own anything in this story or outside it for that matter, Both Harry Potter and Cat Woman belong to their respective creators.

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**Midnight's kitten**

**Chapter 2: Animal attraction.**

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Harry wandered restlessly through the dark London streets later that week. His new abilities had been bothering him at the most inconvenient times. Like his newfound tendency to sleep in late and on the top of the wardrobe no less. Some things where all right, he supposed. He could balance on even the thinnest railings and heights didn't phase him one jot. Mind you, it had never really been a problem in the first place, given that he used to fly on a broomstick in earths lower atmosphere. One of the biggest problems was his sudden lack of inhibitions. It was like someone had taken all his paranoia and caution and thrown it out the window.

He could race across the rooftops and insult people in the street without flinching, he had even begun to find dogs rather unnerving and endeavored to ignore them only because they could smell that he was very different and then there was the nocturnal habits, which was part of the reason he was walking right into a muggle nightclub at eleven in the evening.

His looks gained him access right away without even a word from the doorman. Women in the line watched him pass while jealous boyfriends hung back scowling. Harry paid them no heed as he plunged himself into the crowded dance floor without a second thought. Something about being in the thick of everything excited his cat side more than the catnip balls Midnight kept on bringing into his apartment at night. She left behind all kinds of things, from mice to toys she'd brought from god knows where.

Harry slipped by the other dancers like a breeze, leaving partners behind in his wake who where left with only the vague impression of someone dancing with them before it vanished just as abruptly as Harry had. The green eyed man was loosing himself in the music and the sea of bodies when his sharp sense of smell picked up something that seemed vaguely familiar. Opening his eyes he scanned the crowded dance floor as he sniffed the air again, trying to locate the fleeting smell once more. Something about it just… Harry couldn't even begin to describe the effect it had on him as he blindly began moving. By the time he found the source of the scent he was so intoxicated by it he could barely see who he was with. Whatever was happening to him must have had an effect on the other as well as they fell into an easy rhythm with the music.

After that, everything was just a blur.

* * *

The sound of cars in the street below and the sound of a purring Midnight woke Harry from his sleep the next morning, but he didn't get out of bed, hell he didn't even open his eyes. He lay there floating in the space between waking and dreaming, hugging closer to the big warm pillow he was wrapped around and purring on his own.

Wait a minute… he was on the bed?

He opened his eyes and squinted against the bright light that poured through the window, spilling onto the carpet. Hauling his strangely heavy body upright he rubbed his eyes and looked around properly for the first time and nearly choked. There laying beside him was a man around his age with white/blonde hair and pale skin, still sleeping peacefully. Harry took a closer look and nearly fell out of the bed in his rush to scramble away when he realized his 'body pillow' had been no one less than Draco Malfoy. He was nearly ready to panic when Midnight's concerned 'Miyah' snapped him out of it. Sliding out of bed and pulling on a pair of pants he crossed to where the cat sat perched on the chest of draws and picked her up.

"What aren't you telling me." He murmured pensively as he began to pet her, the purring from the feline became louder. Ignoring it her walked out into the living room and set her down on the table that stood by the couch and began to make breakfast. He'd almost completely forgotten about his guest so when the former Slytherin emerged he was just as surprised to find himself in a strange apartment with the boy-who-lived no less.

"Potter?" He asked weakly, going pale. Harry looked up from where he'd been setting the table and got to him just in time to catch him as his knees gave way. It helped that his cat side was faster and stronger than any human. He easily helped him to a seat and sat across from him watching the blonde warily.

"Good morning Malfoy." He said in an almost pleasant tone. On the inside however, even with the lack of inhibitions he was nervous. This was the first contact he'd had with someone from the wizarding world in weeks and only the second person he'd spoken to since he'd dropped his disguise's. There was a heavy silence before Draco spoke up.

"Everyone else thought you where dead." He blurted out at last as Midnight jumped up on the table to steal a piece of fish and went back to where she was sitting before. Harry raised an eyebrow at Draco.

"Really? I was under the impression they'd just forgotten about me." Draco opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it and shut his mouth. Harry went on. "I know why I disappeared." Harry went on, setting him with the same kind of piercing look Midnight had. "But why would a pureblood be in the muggle world." Draco's face went red and then nearly white once more.

"You don't know?" he asked. Harry shook his head.

"I don't exactly pay attention to wizarding news." Draco gave him a slightly more understanding look and in a low voice began to explain. He didn't exactly understand why he was spilling everything to Harry but for some reason, he felt that he should.

"There have been a lot of attacks recently." He said slowly pushing his food around his plate. "There's a new group of dark wizards going around." Both Midnight and Harry started paying closer attention at this. "They call themselves Wyverns. A while back they began to go after death eaters quietly and for a while the Ministry covered it up. They got my father but I escaped the manor unnoticed. They where tracking the dark marks and since I hadn't been marked, they didn't find me." At the news Draco hadn't been marked Harry gave him an odd look. The blonde went on when he said nothing. "I knew that if I stayed in the wizarding world they'd find me so I left for the muggle world, a week ago the whole thing went public when the families of Death Eaters who where hidden by the ministry began to die, the uproar from the remaining pureblood families was drowned out by all the muggleborns rallying behind the Wyverns." Harry sat slightly stunned by the whole thing.

"What did the Minister have to say about it?" Draco snorted.

"Weasley is a fool, who ever put him in office should be shot. His darling son Ronald is openly showing support for the Wyverns and there are plans to start integrating wizards with muggles again." At that Harry froze. The mention of his old friend brought back the flash he'd had while he'd been at Ophelia Powers' house.

"Orange." He murmured to himself. Draco looked at him but Harry shook his head to clear it. "I haven't been in the wizarding world for so long, I was messed up for a long time." That was true enough. Even if he had been working in Flourish and Blotts he hadn't actually been in any frame of mind capable of caring about the recent events. Even so, he'd slept with his former childhood rival, the least he could do now was give him the benefit of the doubt, but the news about the Wyverns was bugging him like an itch in the back of his skull, he knew something but the memory was sealed.

Their talk turned away from the subject of Wyverns and on toward what Draco had been doing in the muggle world for a while before Harry finally decided to get dressed properly. Midnight brushed against his legs and slid out the now always open window and down into the street, vanishing to where ever she went during the day. Draco watched the feline leave.

"What is it with your cat?" He asked, unnerved. "It keeps on staring at me." Harry couldn't hold back the giggle as they left the apartment later that day.

"Midnight isn't my cat." He said flippantly. "She's Ophelia's, but Midnight has been living with me for some time." Draco gave him a curious look that Harry didn't notice.

"Ophelia?" He asked. Harry shrugged.

"Ophelia Powers, she's an old woman I met a few weeks ago, she's a historical researcher who's been tracing the muggle myth about the cat woman." Now Draco was looking at him strangely. Harry just shrugged again and waited outside in the park while Draco went up to his apartment to get changed. It seemed they'd come to some unspoken agreement to stick around each other. Harry was honestly enjoying talking to the blonde without any animosity. When Draco joined him once more they set off into the park itself, walking shoulder to shoulder.

"So… you rejected the mark?" Harry broke the silence lazily. Draco nodded.

"I wasn't about to lower myself to kissing a mudbloods feet." He spat with genuine feeling. Harry gave him a look before he easily stepped up on the back of a bench, balancing along it like it wasn't an inch thick.

"I often wondered if you'd come to your senses… it seems you did." He did a precarious handstand and flipped off the railing and onto the ground, easily landing on his feet. Draco raised an eyebrow.

"Did that even have a purpose?" He asked, "Other than telling me that everything I thought I dreamt last night was real?" Harry suddenly blushed bright red. 'So much for being shameless.'

"No, I just felt like it." Harry waved it off and continued walking. They talked for some time before Draco had to get back home. Harry scribbled his phone number down on the blonde's hand before they parted ways. Once the blonde was out of sight Harry dashed back in the direction of his apartment as fast as he could. What Draco had said about the Wyverns had rung a bell in the blank part of his memory. Shouldering his door open he grabbed a few things he might need and bypassed his wardrobe and stopped short.

Looking back at the wardrobe pensively he wondered…

* * *

Diagon Alley was slowly emptying of people. The sun was beginning to sink lower beyond the horizon and shops where shutting both in the alley and in muggle London. Harry watched all this from the roof of one of the many junk stores in Diagon Alley. Although, no one really would have guessed it was him. He wore a black mask that covered the top half of his face that was shaped like a cat's. His hair was hidden beneath it as well making sure it didn't give him away. The rest of his outfit might have been a little more questionable.

He'd been to a lot of clubs in the last week and one had been the kind where people remained strictly anonymous. Masks had been a must and costumes to go with them where very popular. Thus the reason Harry was covered in chains and leather. Black leather bondage pants with chains were riding very low on his hips while a pair of black metal bracers covered his arms. Braided black leather bands trailed on his upper arms while belts and chain mail adorned his torso in a twisted parody of a shirt. Black leather boots and a whip attached to the back of his pants like a tail had completed his look.

What had really creped Harry out though was that Midnight had looked very approving when she'd seen him in it last time. The thought still gave him shivers. His cat was weird… well Ophelia's cat was weird if you wanted to get technical.

Silence was finally settling over the Alley. Only the occasional sound from a nocturnal animal and the sounds of drunken people drifting from the direction of Knockturn Alley broke the quiet, but the silence wasn't peaceful. Not by a long shot. He remained perched on the rooftop's watching as the footsteps of two people reached his ears. They came around the bend in the Alley at a run and it took Harry a moment to realize who he was seeing. A Dark haired woman with one blue and one green eye kept looking over her shoulder as the small child beside her, barely eight years old fought to keep up with her longer strides.

It was Blaize Zambini. Her family had mostly been neutral during the war and Harry had been rather busy to even take notice of the Slytherin girl but to not that he'd been the one to kill her father. The Zambini patriarch had been lured into the conflict as a death eater thus by default the entire Zambini clan had been branded as members of the dark side. It didn't exactly help their case that they where pureblood as well, but what Harry wanted to know about them at the moment was, what was Blaize running away from? Fear shone clearly in her mismatched eyes as she tugged along the girl.

Harry griped the edge of the roof tightly with his claws as they hid behind some crates a shopkeeper had left out below him. The claws had been a new addition to his costume. Ophelia had given him a diamond necklace with the claws woven into the pattern and Harry had taken them out and fashioned a pair of gloves that would hold them. He only faintly registered Midnight's arrival beside him as a group of people rounded the corner at a slower pace.

The first thing that jumped out about them was that they wore bright orange robes that mocked the dark night around them. The sickly color splashed over the walls in their wake as they passed under the few lanterns that still lit the street. They fanned out and began to search wherever they could, all the while calling out mockingly to Blaize, their voices muffled by masks that had been painted with orange scales. Harry's glowing eyes flashed as a wave of anger shot through him. They were the Wyverns Draco had told him about, he would bet his life on it and if this was how they worked then they where nothing more than a bunch of no good Death Eater impersonators.

"Come on out Zambini." One voice hissed from beneath a mask.

"You and that brat can't hide forever." Another threw in his two cent's.

"Oh were going to have fun playing with you Death Eater spawn!" They crept down the street, getting closer and closer to Blaize and her young charge. Harry kept waiting as they found her and the shout went down the street.

"Look what we have here!" Blaize looked at them defiantly, her hand in her pocket and most likely clenched around a wand. The Wyverns gathered around her in a suffocating huddle and dragged them out to the center of the street.

"Any last words Death Eater spawn?" one orange robed lunatic asked mockingly. Blaize opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by an unforgivable.

"CRUCIO!" The Wyvern spat and Blaize went down screaming. The curse was lifted nearly a minute later and another raised their wand to join in when a voice drifted down to them from above.

"I wouldn't do that if I where you." The men jumped in surprise at being interrupted before they gathered the wits and turned their wands outward and searched the area for the source.

"Come out here and say it to our faces!" The one who'd first cast the unforgivable ground out. It was clear that he was the leader of their merry little band. Above them Harry gave an arrogant little chuckle making them tense up even more.

"Why should I?" he asked, they pointed their wand upward as Harry easily jumped to the other side of the Alley. He was playing with them now. "After all," he spoke again, his voice taking on a mocking sarcastic tone. "who would be stupid enough to put themselves in danger like that? What do you take me for? A Gryffindor?" The really interesting part of his impromptu little speech was his audience's reaction. They'd bristled slightly at that last comment.

'Interesting.' He noted it for later.

He walked lazily along the guttering of Flourish and Blots letting the Wyverns train their wands on him before leaping swiftly out of the way of the spells that nearly destroyed the roof behind him.

"Missed me." Hanging by his knees from a sign behind them he grinned widely, showing all his teeth as he watched them jump in shock. Wheeling around the sign exploded with a well aimed 'Reducto' but once again Harry wasn't there.

"You'll have to do better than that." He purred, his voice echoing around the close confines of the Alley. "But, since you've already tried it's my turn." He didn't give them a chance to register what he'd said. With a newfound speed none of the wizards could hope to match Harry leapt down, landing on his feet with ease he slashed the neared Wyvern with his diamond claws. They fell back with a scream, dropping their wand. Curses shot from every direction but Harry twisted easily to avoid the deadly beams of light. Mid leap he grabbed the whip from its place on his lower back and quickly used it to get rid of their wands, keeping it moving in a steady rhythm to hold them back he wandlessly summoned the ones that had fallen.

Wandless magic had been something he'd picked up during the war as part of his training, few people knew he could do it and in cases like this it came in handy. Wands left a signature with any magic they'd done, this way of wielding magic didn't. Cracking the whip one more time he danced out of the way of a volley of curses and backhanded one of the shorter members of the group, sending his mask flying. Snapping another wand he span around to face the leader but by now the sad excuse for terrorists had realized they where outmatched.

Portkeys where conjured in the blink of an eye and in a second they where gone. Lowering his claws and coiling his whip he reattached it to it's strap and turned toward the sound of scuffling feet as Blaize and the little girl came out of hiding. She watched him warily, her body still shaking with the after effects of the Cruciatus. The little girl however had no problem running up to him and throwing her arms around his legs.

"Thank you Kitty!" She shrieked happily. Harry choked at the nickname the child had bestowed on him. Carefully prying her loose he gave Blaize a short nod before he leapt on a crate and darted onto the rooftops in a hurry to get away but not before he heard the girl calling out to him again. "Thank you for saving us Mr Kitty Man!" It hit him then that he had saved them and a warm feeling spread through his heart as he realized this was what he'd been missing. They'd always said he'd had a thing for saving people.

'I guess there's still a little bit of Gryffindor in me after all.'

* * *

Well that's it for this chapter. I hope it's long enough; after all it only took me… four months (I think) to finish it. Well now that I'm this far I need a bit of help, the next chapter the wizarding world is going to hear about the 'cat person' beating up Wyverns and I can't think of a suitable name for Harry when his doing the 'saving people' thing. So any ideas you readers might have would be very much appreciated.

Don't forget to review!

Cya


	4. Facts about Weasley's

Disclaimer: I don't claim to own anything in this story or outside it for that matter, Both Harry Potter and Cat Woman belong to their respective creators.

* * *

(A/N: A quick note, one of the reviewers asked if Harry had an Animagus form. I'm kinda unsure whether or not he should have one. Technically he already had everything an Animagus form could give him short of ears and a tail and I never actually thought about him having a form to begin with. The most likely possibility would be a partial transformation….. I'll stop writing now…..)

* * *

**Midnight's kitten**

**Chapter 3: Facts about Weasley's**

* * *

A/N: Just a quick note... H.B.P wasn't writen when I started this so some of the back story will be AU... I think that's all I need to say for now...

* * *

It was official. He was insane. 

Harry roamed the rooftops of the wizarding world and sometimes the muggle world as he watched over the wizards that where currently at loggerheads over his appearance a week ago. He'd been in Diagon Alley taking a full inventory of his vaults at Gringotts (sp?) when who else but Ronald Weasley should appear in the street with a public announcement. The 'Panther', as the 'Mr kitty-man' had been named by the public, was a dangerous and unpredictable threat to wizards everywhere and proved it by attacking those who had only their best interests at heart, namely the Wyverns.

Harry ignored the guard of friends that surrounded Ron, (mostof which hadbeen at school with them in the seventh year) andstalked up the stairs and into the snowy white building… well, that was what he'd intended to do. He was jostled from one side as he mounted the steps and the person he'd bumped into fell to the ground with a near shriek of outrage.

"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING! I'M A VERY IMPORTANT PERSON AND I'LL HAVE YOU ARRESTED!" It was none other than Ron himself and he hadn't even recognized him. Harry couldn't help but feel a twinge of irritation at the fact he'd been forgotten so easily. The cat inside him didn't like his attitude and rose to the challenge.

"Weasley, that day you become important to the wizarding world is the day I dance on your grave." He mentally winced as the minister's son went red but on the outside he was smug. The cat had gotten one up on him.

"I…I'LL…" Ron struggled to get out the words but failed in his apparent rage.

"And to think," Harry continued lightly, "That I was even once your friend, I know your mother would be ashamed if she could see you, pureblood." (Molly Weasley had died in the war.) With that he straightened his robes and strode up the stairs and out of sight before a loud explosion of expletives followed him. He smirked in triumph; he'd never imagined that insulting Ron like that could be so fun. It gave him an idea of why Draco had persisted to do so all through school. A goblin standing beside the door quickly ran to open it as he passed.

"Mister Potter." He bowed with what could be considered an evil smirk. Harry knew that they at least still remembered everything from the war. Harry had made an alliance with them shortly after Sirius's death; they'd agreed to support Harry as opposed to one of the other factions. They would not only take care of his money and stop Dumbledore from poking his nose into his business but if he'd ever needed refuge they would protect him as well. Harry had only taken them up on that offer once a long, long time ago. They held a very low regard for the minister's son and where once again teetering on the edge of rebellion with the uprising of the Wyverns, even if relations had been better among the non-human magic folk, but with the deaths of pure blood families their workload had increased in order to cope with the problems caused by sudden account dumps.

Passing by the doors he paid no heed to the people in the lobby and instead went straight toward the back wall. Mid way there he noticed someone out of the corner of his eye. The little girl that had been with Blaize last week stood beside and older woman that he recognized as the Slytherin's older sister. She had been in the seventh year when they'd started first year and had left school to marry a Nott. A divorce had followed not long after.

"Why are they saying bad things about Mister Kitty Man?" The child's innocent voice was indignant as she glared at the doors where Weasley was still struggling against his own guards on the steps.

"I don't know Anna." The woman who Harry assumed to be her mother replied. "Some people see him as good, some see him as bad." Anna kept glaring at the doors as a goblin lead her mother and herself away. Harry promptly tuned out everyone in the bank and looked around for the goblin he'd come to see.

"Ah, Griphook!"

* * *

Back in the muggle world later the same day, Harry found himself face to face once more with none other than Draco Malfoy. The blonde looked slightly disheveled and distracted as he nearly just walked past Harry in the street. He had to do a double take before he turned around and realized whom he'd just seen. 

"Harry!" Green eyes turned slightly concerned as he looked over the frantic blonde.

"What's wrong?" He asked warily as he took his former enemy by the hand and dragged him out of the middle of the footpath and into a nearby park. Draco was a wreak and had to be forced to sit down on a bench.

"I don't know how they found me." He muttered out in a low voice that Harry had to lean in to hear. "They just showed up last night." Harry had his suspicions but asked anyway.

"Who Draco?" The blonde's normally silver eyes had dulled to grey in his panic.

"The Wyverns." He said with a shudder. Harry sat back with a sigh. Silence lingered in the air between them for a long time and Draco stopped shaking, but his eyes still flicked from side to side, looking out for unseen enemies.

"What happened?" Harry asked again, but this time, genuinely concerned. Draco turned his eyes to the leaves above them as he leaned back.

"They arrived at my apartment last night while I was out and tried to set up a trap but the landlord found them out when one of the other tenants called saying he heard someone in my apartment. He went to see what it was and disrupted them so when I got home he was busy yelling at them. The Wyverns didn't even notice I was there until he yelled at me to run. Then one of the bastards just turned around and stunned him before they all turned after me." He shuddered again. "They meant to kill me. If it hadn't been for all the training Severus gave me before…" He trailed off again and returned to scanning the park. Harry's eyes narrowed as he watched Draco. The cat didn't like this, not one bit.

"You can't go back to your apartment." Harry stated simply it was an obvious fact but that mattered little. "I'm sure midnight won't mind sharing me for a while." Draco looked up at him, his expression relieved. Neither of them could really begin to fathom the depth of the changes they'd gone through. Back in the war they would have happily ripped each other's heads off and left it at that, but now… Harry didn't think he'd ever get over the irony of it. Getting up from the bench he beckoned for the blonde to follow. They walked in silence for a long time before Harry broke it.

"I saw Weasley this morning." He commented offhandedly making Draco look at him sharply. Harry heaved a sigh. "He didn't even recognize me and threatened to have me arrested because he was _a very important person_." He looked over his shoulder at Draco who had a blank look on his face and grinned.

"So I told him the day he became important was the day I danced on his grave and that his mother would be ashamed of him acting so pureblooded." This got the desired effect. Draco snorted violently with laughter.

"You didn't!" Harry just threw him another grin and held open the door of his apartment before following his new roommate inside.

* * *

_**The-Boy-Who-Lived or Imposter?**_

_Yesterday in Diagon Alley the minister's son, Ronald Weasley, had just made an announcement on the stairs of Gringotts when a figure in black swept up the stairs knocking into him and after some study of this figure discovered to be none other than Harry Potter, The-boy-who-defeated-he-who-must-not-be-named. But Weasleys former friend had nothing good to say about him. Accusing him of being a pureblood and reminding him of the departed Molly Weasley._

_Is Potter somehow connected to the Mud Blood movement? And if so, why is he insulting its number one supporter? This reporter doesn't believe he has anything to do with the rumors, I've learnt from my past and remember very clearly that no matter what, Potter has always been right. So I will give him the benefit of the doubt and welcome him back to the wizarding world._

_Rita Skeeter_

_Daily Prophet_

* * *

Harry burst out laughing at the article in the paper, startling the people in the street around him and earning weird looks as the hood of his cloak fell off, revealing his identity to anyone who cared to look. 

"Trust Rita to notice." He panted out in gasping breaths when he finally let his roaring laughter recede. He was still chuckling when he reached the apocathary. He needed some potions ingredients; Draco hadn't been sleeping at all since the incident a few days ago. Even in a secure place he still scanned the apartment and the street below his windows in search of the orange robe that heralded the arrival of the ones who wanted to kill him. It was a strange look on the Slytherin. He'd never once in the time Harry had known him, had he shown this kind of fear.

Besides, if he didn't find a way to knock him out at night he'd never be able to leave his apartment.

The empty space in his head where the memory of his death had been had begun to grow smaller. Over the past two weeks, give or take, he'd been piecing together the events and one thing was absolutely certain. The Wyverns had everything to do with it. His excursions as 'Mr Kitty Man' had been very informative.

Oh the horror, he was even calling himself that now.

Making his way back home he set up everything and got to work.

* * *

Harry didn't quite know what to feel as he looked up at the half twisted structure that still acted as the home of the minister for magic, Arthur Weasley. It was already common knowledge that dear Ronald supported the Wyverns so, returning to the burrow seemed to be the most logical step. Fortunately… or maybe unfortunately, no one had lived there in a long time. It's windows where dark, missing the shadow of the mother Weasley pottering in the kitchen window. The house itself seemed lifeless. 

The bedroom window on the second floor was easily opened and Harry slipped inside, dropping to the floor and ghosting across the room to the door he peered out onto the landing. There was nothing there. The house creaked ominously in the wind and he began to prowl, his first stop… Ron's room.

Faded orange paint was peeling under a layer of dust and the few remaining Quidditch posters left on the walls had stopped moving a long time ago, leaving the smiling faces of the Chudley Cannons washed out and stationary. A large stack of old comic books were piled in one corner and for the most part the room was the same as it had been once upon a time… It was like Ron had just up and left…

Harry slinked over to the desk and looked over it. Parchment was scattered everywhere. Old homework from Hogwarts, more comic books, quills, dried up ink pots, but one object caught his attention, an orange folder. Diamond clawed fingers reached out and carefully picked it up. As he did though, something fluttered out of it. Leaning down he flipped it over and felt as though his stomach had dropped away. His own face stared back at him, carefree and smiling with Hermione hanging over his shoulder, waving cheerfully. But even then the tall, sullen and gangly red head stood off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest as he glared at Harry's back.

Unbidden a sneer made it's way across Harry's face.

Molly Weasley would most certainly be ashamed of Ronald now.

Sliding the photo under the desk with a foot he tucked the folder under a strap that ran across his back and padded out of the room, jumping over the creaking steps to reach the ground floor. It also looked untouched by the passage of time and Harry couldn't help but feel a little regret as he walked into the kitchen. For a moment, his minds eye could see the friendly, smiling face of the witch who had taken on the role of his mother… right before the spells blasted a hole in her chest.

The gap in the wall had been roughly boarded over, no one wanting to really look at it let alone fix it.

Tuning out his ghosts he looked across the dining room table. It had been used as a desk at one point, paper scattered like it had over Ron's, but there was nothing really useful there. Just old scraps of paper and a few ministry memos that had found their way there, Harry gathered them up, regardless of how old, you never knew when something interesting would show up. Taking one last look around the house Harry went back to the stairs but before he could move up to the second floor he froze.

Someone had just moved outside.

It was then that he caught his oversight. Of course, somewhere like the Minister's old home was going to have wards around it to warn of intruders, even if they barely lived there anymore. Harry slunk back into the shadows and watched the front door as it swung open on silent hinges after a whispered spell. A wand came through the gap, lighting the way as it was followed by an orange gloved hand. The Wyvern scanned the room for signs of life before signaling behind him.

"Clear." More entered the house and spread out.

"The wards only registered one person entering before us." Surprisingly it was a female giving the orders and she was going about it with all the efficiency of a military officer. Under his mask Harry raised an eyebrow.

_'They're incorporating muggle military tactics into how they work.'_ He mused silently. _'You'd think they'd be more efficient.'_ Harry stayed in the shadows, moving past them as they walked further into the house. Resisting the urge to beat the shit out of them he made his way to the door. He had what he'd came for so there was little use provoking them since technically, they weren't doing anything wrong. The more cat like part of his mind was yowling quietly, vengefully promising pain. So Harry had the small pleasure of knocking out the guards before he stepped through the edge of the wards and apperated.

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A/N: Ahhhhh! Short chapter this time… I kinda had to go back and re-read everything again because I haven't worked on this in a while, but I will tell you now, I might end up re posting this chapter. It doesn't quite fit somehow so I'll go over it again, but until then take this as a sign I haven't given up on this story yet! 

Don't forget to review!

Cya


	5. The Faces of my Past

Disclaimer: I don't claim to own anything in this story or outside it for that matter, Both Harry Potter and Cat Woman belong to their respective creators.

**h e r e k i t t y k i t t y k i t t y**

Midnight's kitten

By Mage-Alia

Chapter 4: The Faces of My Past

**h e r e k i t t y k i t t y k i t t y**

Harry stared at the person on his doorstep with incredulous disbelief.

If someone had told him all those years ago that one day he'd hate those he'd considered friends he probably would have laughed in their face but at the moment he was almost wishing someone had told him sooner so he could get Draco away from his apartment.

"Let me in Harry!" The Boy-Who-Won was shaken out of his stupor by the demand and scowled.

"Why should I Ron?" He asked in an irritated tone, setting the red head with a piercing glare, the kind only a cat could pull off. The Minister for Magic's son looked as though he was resisting the urge to growl.

"Mate! You're my best friend! Hermione is waiting outside too, we both wanted to see you!" Harry leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Oh, so now I'm _'your'_ friend?" He asked skeptically. "If I'm your friend, then why haven't you even bothered to write in so long?" Midnight, who had been sitting by his feet, gave a menacing yowl and Ron gave her an irritated glance and promptly began to ignore her.

"Come on mate! That doesn't matter! Where here now and we want to see you, can't we just come in for a little?" Harry set the pathetic man with a level stare.

"No, besides, my boyfriend is still asleep and I don't feel like explaining to him why I would be yelling at the Minister's Son." A look of surprise flitted across Ron's face at the news that he had a boyfriend.

"You're gay!" He asked, going so red that his face was nearly purple. For a moment Harry was reminded of his Uncle Vernon, having seen the same expression on his face every time something strange happened. Harry just gave Ron another deadpan look.

"Yes, I am." The Weasley looked slightly at a loss upon hearing the flat admission. He had been about to rant on something but couldn't get it out. He gave a frustrated huff and didn't even say goodbye before he flounced off down the stairs, Dean and Seamus following like guard dogs. Harry just threw them one last glare before moving back into the apartment and slamming the door as hard as he could. Across the room out of direct sight of the door Draco was standing by the window that looked out into the alley where the ministry car had been parked. He moved back slightly when Ron stormed into the alley and Hermione stepped out of the vehicle. Even from two floors below Harry could hear him yelling without heed of who might be listening.

"CAN YOU BELIEVE HIM!" He roared and kicked a garbage can, sending his flunkies scattering and the garbage can rolling, rubbish spilling out onto the pavement as it went. "HE HAD THE NERVE TO REJECT ME! ME! THE SON OF THE MINISTER! JUST SO HE DIDN'T HAVE TO WAKE UP HIS _BOYFRIEND_!" The last part had been said in a scathing tone as he kicked out at another innocent garbage can. Hermione moved forward.

"Well, its been so long… and you never bothered to contact him…" She trailed off timidly and Harry's eyes narrowed as Ron turned on her in a towering rage and slapped her across the face.

"Don't even try to talk to me!" He ground out and stalked to the car. Dean moved to help her but Ron sent him a glare.

"Leave her there!" He barked out sharply and the two former Gryffindor's reluctantly obeyed. After they'd gotten into the car it rolled out of the Alley and drove out into traffic, leaving Hermione behind. The curly haired witch wore a stricken look before she broke down and buried her face in her hands and began sobbing as the summer storm that had been building over the last few days finally broke on the city.

"Well this is interesting." Harry said slowly as he stepped back and slowly made his way to the door. Draco looked at him as he shrugged on a coat and picked up an umbrella.

"Harry?" Hand on the doorknob he half turned and gave the blonde man a small smile.

"I know what I'm doing." He purred and slipped out the door. Draco stared at the closed door until Midnight meowed to get his attention. She gave him a forceful nudge to the leg and he picked her up and placed her on the table under the window, his hands absent-mindedly petting her as they watched.

Hermione didn't look up from her crying until she realized that the rain was no longer falling and when she did she was beyond startled to see the green eyed gaze of the former Gryffindor golden boy staring down at her with an unreadable expression.

"Hello Hermione." He said, voice pitched low but still audible above the patter of the rain on the surface of the umbrella.

"H…Harry?" She managed to stutter out, her teeth chattering slightly from the cold. Harry nodded and offered a hand to help her up. The girl accepted it and was soon standing, her arms wrapped around herself as Harry turned and walked away. He stopped though when he realized she wasn't following and looked back, an eyebrow raised.

"Well? Are you coming or not?" Hermione jumped, startled before she rushed toward him, her high heeled shoes tapping on the concrete as she followed him out of the alley. A few minutes later she was standing in the entry of Harry's small apartment dripping on the carpet. Outside the rain had slowed to a sun shower as light filtered through the clouds, making the alley outside the window glow as Harry returned to the room with a towel and handed it to her.

"Tea?" He asked and it was all she could do to nod numbly before he vanished into the kitchen. Wrapping the towel around herself she looked toward the window once again and noticed with a start that she wasn't alone. There by the window stood one person she had never thought she'd have seen again.

"Hello Granger." There was no hostility in his tone like there had been in their school days, instead there was a sort of wariness that made her wonder what he was afraid of. Hermione just nodded mutely in response, her mind barely functioning through the lingering shock. The cat on the small table beside him gave her a somewhat lofty stare before it leapt down lightly and strutted off into the next room.

It was silent after that as neither really wanted to move until Harry came gliding gracefully into the room once more, Midnight at his heels. He set the tea tray down before Draco wondered over and once more Hermione was subjected to the expectant look before she joined them, sitting gingerly on the edge on the couch. She was jittery and nervous about being in front of her old friend and his former rival. Of all things she hadn't expected them to be together either, if Ron's ranting was anything to go by.

"So…" She broke the long silence quietly once Harry handed her a cup, pouring out an extra one and setting it aside for the cat. "…How have you been?" Hermione nearly winced as the words came out and looked for the negative sign she'd been expecting but there was no anger or exasperation in Harry's face. His eyes traveled to her cheek and he absentmindedly pulled out his wand muttering something as he waved it at her and there was a brief icy sensation in her cheek before the stinging left from Ron's hit vanished.

"I was… unsettled, for a long time." Harry answered. "It's good to see you again." He offered and Hermione couldn't help but smile at the honest admission. She set aside her untouched tea and threw herself at her old friend.

"Oh Harry, I missed you so much." She said as she began crying again. "It just hasn't been the same without you and Ron… Ron… changed…" She trailed off as she realized what she'd done and hurriedly pulled back but Harry didn't let her get far. Pulling her back into the hug.

"I know Hermione." He assured her before letting her sit back again.

Harry sent a look at Draco as Hermione began to fuss, her old half bossy persona slightly muted, but it still shined through the timid cast that had almost taken its place. Where he no longer trusted Ron as far as he could throw him Hermione seemed to be a different story. She seemed genuinely sorry and almost lost. In a way it reminded Harry of how he had been after the war, barely living his day-to-day life and going through the motions ingrained into him by repetition. From the argument in the alley and the way she had let Ron walk all over her it was like she given up trying to live.

From there the conversation opened up and slowly but surely Harry got to hear the things he couldn't get from the papers. He heard how Ron had told Hermione he loved her and after a while, proceeded to ignore her after she had founded a small club of her own among her closer muggleborn friends. It had started out innocently enough, just a weekly meeting where they would talk about the state of the wizarding world and the petitions they'd launched to have some laws reviewed, the ones with the more daring ideas where talked down but then Ron had gained an interest and it had all changed. His influence as the minister's son and his known backing of muggleborns had put him in a position to stir up the masses into action. Hermione had fought him at first, she had tried to stop her friends from going down the same path as the death eaters but they hadn't listened to her.

Eventually Ron had taken her aside and threatened to pull her funding for her spell research if she didn't shut up and live with it. At first she'd tried to do without it Ron had struck again, making her unemployable. She hated him somewhere deep down but she was still putting on a smile for the masses as she was pulled around on Ron's arm for everyone to see, like a trophy to show off.

As Hermione faltered toward the end of her story Harry looked at the floor and began to glare a hole through the carpet.

"Mr. Weasley knows about this right?" He asked, "Why hasn't he tried to stop it all?" Hermione gave him a slightly helpless look.

"He can't do anything. Muggleborn witches and wizards now outnumber the purebloods and old families 1 to 20. They make up more of the magical population of England and there's nothing he can do to go against the majority, especially since they're scattered all through his ranks. If he stirred them into mutiny the wizarding world would be completely shattered." It was grim news indeed.

"And the purebloods?" Harry asked. He'd already been over the question with Draco but he wanted to hear it from someone else.

"Dying out." Hermione said with a sympathetic look at Draco's faintly green expression. "Ron isn't going to stop at them. He's to power hungry as it is and the only thing that could have brought him into line is the Wizenmoot, but…"

"…But that was made up of pureblood seats and with most of them dead or in hiding they can't do anything against him." Harry finished for her as Midnight looked up from her tea cup and meowed for more. Hermione jumped at the sound and Harry rolled his eyes, dispelling the somewhat grim air.

"Midnight! No more! Ophelia already said not to give you caffeine as it was! You get more hyper than Socretee's!" The cat complained loudly as Harry spirited the cup out of the cat's reach and went about removing the empty plates, teapot and cups. Draco got up to help him but Harry waved him off, deftly levitating the tea set back to the kitchen. Now well and truly dry Hermione got to her feet and stretched, crossing over to a window and looking out at the street that fronted the building.

It was amazing how light she felt after getting all of that off her chest. She smiled to herself as she began to make plans on sabotaging her own boyfriends growing organization but then she looked down at the small desk nearby and the smile melted off her face faster than she could snap her fingers. There, laid out in plain view was a bright orange folder. Half hanging out of it where sheets of parchment covered in blotchy stick figures in fading ink that depicted little unspeakable acts. Others contained familiar sloppy writing and in bold across the top of one sheet where the words,

**I HATE HARRY POTTER!**

Harry re-entered the room at that moment and Hermione looked up, shock displayed on her face.

"Harry…" She gasped out. "Where did you get this?" The said man looked at the folder on the desk and winced at his own stupidity for leaving it lying around.

"…" He remained silent as his eyes flickered to Draco and back to Hermione. His mind was searching for an answer but none seemed to come in time to explain his late night wonderings. The folder and the break in at the Burrow was all the evidence needed to place him there. Harry's gaze drifted again, but this time they fell on Midnight. The Egyptian Mau stared back at him, her eyes somehow conveying a kind of understanding that hit him like a hammer.

'_Tell them what you need to.' _The animal side of himself translated and Harry let out a heavy sigh, flicking a long bang out of his face as he looked back at Hermione and Draco's curious expressions.

"What… what if I told you I died…"

**h e r e k i t t y k i t t y k i t t y**

Green eyes looked through the window from their perch on the roof of a nearby building. In the apartment Hermione was asleep on his couch, still afraid to leave and that made her the second person he'd taken under his wing… well, paw… in as many weeks. He knew Draco was still where he'd left him, in his own bed, one that he rarely ever used any more.

Everything was becoming… so messed up.

He had been murdered and resurrected all in the same night and his killers where part of a faction that had started out as nothing more than a get together held by Hermione on weekends. It was all so much more personal now. The people who had killed him where connected to the people in his past. The ones he'd thought of as friends in his years at Hogwarts and in the few desperate years of fighting afterward.

The one's who had eventually forgotten him and left him to drown in his own depression.

But, no matter how much he tried to block it all out the world seemed to want in. It pressed against him from all sides until even he couldn't deny reality anymore. He could no longer leave the wizarding world to flow past him as if it never existed, things had gone to far and there was no one else to take up the mantle of the hero and to save them from themselves. Harry looked down at his gloves, the tips of the diamond claws glinting at him in the moonlight as he remembered the words Ophelia had told him after she'd finally accepted Midnight's choice.

_'…Midnight, is special. She has the power to grant freedom to any caged soul and you have indeed been caged. For whatever reason she has judged you worthy of something that until now, has only been held by your predecessors, the cat women who have appeared over the ages. She has given them ultimate power and ultimate confidence in themselves and others. By accepting the gift as you have, you have accepted both sides of yourself and found the balance you sorely needed. From now you may be alone or misunderstood by others, but you have all the time in the world to face them…'_

Indeed his transformation had brought out the side of himself he'd lost to the war and for the first time he could think clearly. The world had needed him as much as he had needed them and now that he was back, he hadn't the heart to turn away. He was free of all obligations to the Wizards and Muggles alike but the urge to fight was in his blood. As long as there was someone he needed to protect he would always find himself back where he'd begun, standing on the line between light and dark fighting the eternal battle for neither side in hope of something better. It was what his soul had screamed out every day of his life.

Harry tore his eyes away from the windows of his apartment and with his cat like grace he began to travel across the rooftops of London. Silent as a ghost he made his way to an industrial area and stopped, searching out the right building amid the rows of large metal storage warehouses. Hermione had given him a few hints to finding the Wyverns that he hadn't known before, such as one of their meeting places in London itself. As cliché as it seemed the use of the industrial area was still a good place for them to hide. Most purebloods refused to enter the Muggle world anymore. Even the innocent ones who had stood on the sidelines where keeping to themselves.

He took a long leap over a few transport containers and jumped silently up onto the rooftop of the warehouse at the end of the row, furthest from the city. Careful not to make even the slightest of noise as he crossed the tin roof he found a skylight that wasn't as rusted as the others and used it as an entry point. Slinking into the steal beams that made up the rafters he found a place with sufficient shadows close to the wall and draped himself over the precarious perch. The Warehouse didn't remain empty for long.

There where no wards on the building, the people who met here weren't going to risk the magic of any protections drawing any wizards or witches that didn't belong to their ranks. One by one, each with a blistering crack of apperation they came taking a place in the circles that moved outward from the center of the warehouse. All wore the same eye searing shade of orange and shifted slightly, murmuring to each other before there was another crack and suddenly, Ronald Weasley was standing there in the midst of them all. Before he could put his hand in his pocket Harry spied a glint of gold and realized that they had been using the DA galleons to contact members.

Green eyes narrowed as Ron began to speak, ranting about 'Granger' betraying them and 'Potter' denying the invitation to join their cause. As he hadn't worn a mask it was all to clear to see how he felt about the subject. His face was that ugly puce color and it clashed with his hair as he verily spat out his rant. Harry listened, the urge to intervene growing as the meeting continued with the general reports from various divisions.

If anything, they where organized.

They had their fingers in all the right pies. One group had joined the Muggle defense forces and reported that they where manipulating their way into the higher ranks as quickly as their magic would allow them without being discovered. The concealed audience of one recognized the slightly more mature voice of Lavender Brown as she stepped out of the centermost circle and draped herself over Ron. His cat side sneered at her, hissing out a lowly 'slut' that forced Harry to repress the urge to laugh. He just grinned, very white teeth nearly glowing in the darkness. Business reports from Muggle companies where bandied about and also the rather disturbing fact that members of the Wyverns had been buying out the various communications mediums in both worlds.

They weren't going to just expose the wizarding world to the Muggle's, they where aiming to take over everything…

…and the scary part?

Unlike the efforts of Voldemort, these idiots might just have a chance.

Continuing to listen he wasn't nearly as surprised as he should have been when Ron began to speak once more, but this time he was frighteningly cold, real malice coating the tone of his voice.

"I want you all to prepare for an assault in the muggle world tomorrow. We are going to pay a visit to Harry 'Bloody' Potter." Murmurs went up again and Harry finally decide to act, making sure he could see a clear path to the open skylight he stood up on his perch and peered down.

"I don't think I can allow that." He purred, his voice deepening as he began to wonder easily across beams and supports. The movement combined with the sound of his voice drew their attention quickly and a few of the more trigger happy quickly shot a volley of spells toward him as a good chunk of those present left as quickly as they could, not wanting to be caught. Ron sneered when they abandoned the others.

"Cowards." The red head growled before drawing his wand and aiming it at the ceiling, but holding back from firing. "Come out here and say that to my face, scum! Or I'll hex you into Oblivion!" In the roof Harry got a flash of de'ja vu and his world seemed to fade for a moment as the scene was replaced by a memory.

"…_Don't move or I'll hex you into oblivion Freak, you're not going anywhere…" _

A clawed hand reached up, brushing over the place where he felt the ghost of a wand tip pressing against his forehead and cold stone below.

The voice matched.

Ron had been there that night.

Suddenly Harry didn't feel like playing with them anymore. He crouched on the beam as only a cat could and hissed down at those still assembled.

"I'd like to see you try asshole!" Harry growled out angrily, the hairs rising on the back of his head as he jumped to another perch with little effort. The wands where no longer trained on him as he slunk back into the shadows, moving quickly to another area of the roof.

"You've already tried once…" He said before moving once more. "Remember me?"

Another spray of Hexes where avoided.

"No, of course you don't." Harry went on conversationally. "I was just another insignificant victim." He put in an air of burden to his tone.

"Unwanted…. In the wrong place…. Unmissed…" He leapt down, momentum allowing him to run vertically down a wall without flying off, nails biting deep through the metal in his rage. He leapt out of the shadows and strafed past one of the wyverns, catching them off guard. The man screamed out loud and clutched at the arm of his robe where a set of paper-thin scratches where visible. Harry vanished once more and stopped to take a good look at his former friend.

He had worked himself into a rage and was fuming as he began to shoot off increasingly dark curses at random. Harry didn't say anything else, instead staying stock-still. After a while they finally gave up trying to curse him and Ron swore under his breath, muttering dangerously to himself.

"Our plans for tomorrow will still go ahead!" He barked out at the remaining Wyverns and grabbed the giggling Lavender before he vanished with a crack. The others looked at each other before following suit. Some of them actually remembered the Boy-Who-Killed-The-Dark-Lord. If they where going to kill him in this attack they where going to need to be at their best. Harry waited until he could no longer smell them and made his way back up into the rafters the same way he'd gotten down.

Careful to avoid the newly created structural weaknesses he escaped through the skylight and made his way out of the area. Upon reaching his apartment he silently slipped in the window and shucked the costume before slipping on a pair of tracksuit pants and sliding into the bed with Draco.

It would be easy enough to move on tomorrow.

**h e r e k i t t y k i t t y k i t t y**

And that's all she wrote!

Wow! This is like the third story I've updated in the last two or so weeks. I am SOOOOOO on a roll! Everything seems to be coming along so well right now…. (but that's only when it doesn't involve school.)

So for now, keep and eye out for any updates…who knows, maybe I'll even dig up something for that GW/Underworld story I was cooking a while back…

… actually, don't get your hopes up on that, the inspiration fairy went on holiday where that is concerned….

Don't forget to Review!

Cya.


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